In August of 2012 I had an email exchange with a blogger named Turner who was the founder of the travel blog Around the World in 80 Jobs.

Turner had written a post on working at the Pink Palace party hostel on the Greek Island of Corfu, where I myself had worked for a summer in 2005. I got in touch with him, he said he’d been working on the blog for a while, and was looking to grow. I told him he had a great idea and wished him the best of luck.

Almost a year later, it now appears that after working tirelessly to grow his blog into a successful travel brand, a large, multinational corporation with assets estimated in the billions of dollars has launched a marketing campaign that is shockingly similar to Turner’s brand, and has even trademarked the name of his site.

More importantly, here is a post where Turner addresses the issue and raises the concerning fact that, amongst other things, the actor in the promotional video looks just like him.

Some are claiming it’s Turner’s own fault for not trademarking his brand. Many in the blogging community are claiming this is a blatant intellectual property violation that obliterates the role of ethics in business.

Take a look for yourself, and let us know what you think. Does Turner have a right to be angry about this, or has a large company seized on a successful idea and taken off running with it?

Give us your thoughts in the comments below.

**Update: The company has since removed their promotional video from their website and has restricted access to their marketing video**